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CLASSIC TV
ON DVD:

I
Love Lucy - The Complete Fourth Season
It's been exactly fifty years since I Love Lucy season four originally
aired. CBS, Paramount and about a million other production entities have
released the fourth season ofI Love Lucy - as
far as I'm concerned it's a 'Best of' package because it contains many
of my favorite episodes. I Love Lucy - The Complete Fourth Seasonstarts out
with some funny New York City based episodes before Lucy Ricky, Ethel
and Fred dump the baby midseason, packed their bags and headed out to
Los Angeles. You not only get those great Hollywood episodes but the very
funny shows detailing the car trip out west.
Not having seen most of these episodes since I was a kid, I was pleased
to find them as funny as I remembered. Lucy learns to drive, poses as
the Mertz' maid, sets her nose on fire, jumps a Hollywood tour bus and
hikes over Jack Benny's fence, stars like Harpo Marx, William Holden,
Rock Hudson; they are all here.
I was fortunate to meet with the guys at CBS Television City who were
remastering the I Love Lucy series for these DVD sets. Every episode
is painstaking restored; there was so much depth and detail in the original
films their biggest problem was when to stop sharpening the image. (They
told me they stopped when you could see how bad Desi Arnaz' potmarked
face looked.)
The interstitials and secondary sponsor tags are here, along with the
original animated openings - though for some reason the episodes begin
with the familiar heart-shaped syndicated openings, you have to view the
animated titles separately in the bonus material section.
For those of you who prefer to watch the show in Spanish, the shows come
with the original Spanish language overdubs recorded more than forty years
ago for syndication.
There are extras - five complete episodes of Lucy's radio show My Favorite
Husband, trivia feature by Lucy expert Tom Watson, behind-the-scenes audio
featurette, production notes and more. Loads of fun!

I
Love Here's Lucy!

About
four years ago, a radio interviewer asked me what show I would most like
to see come out on DVD. This was before the new interest in releasing
classic TV shows in the newest format. My
answer, Here's Lucy, pretty much got me thrown off the air!

My reasoning
- I grew up on I Love Lucy reruns as a kid and was thrilled when
Nickelodeon began airing The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour and The Lucy
Show. But Here's Lucy hasn't been active in syndication for
over a decade and I've barely seen the series at all since it left the
air in 1974.

So I was
shocked to find a brand new collection of the best of Here's Lucy
along with the greatest batch of extras I've seen to date. I'm going to
go out on a limb and say there is no greater DVD release than this one
so far, especially for Lucy fans.

If the name
of Paul Brownstein isn't familiar to you, you'll want to know why one
Amazon reviewer called him, "the best friend classic TV ever had." I second
that emotion.

Here's
Lucy: Best Loved Episodes from the Hit TV Series is another Paul
Brownstein production (released through The Shout Factory); if you purchased
the Dick Van Dyke Show, Richard Pryor, Sonny and Cher or You
Bet Your Life collections you'll know what I'm talking about.

Paul is setting
the gold standard for classic TV, the quality everyone should strive for
but few attempt - once again offering a package of extras that TV lovers
dream of. outtakes, bloopers, rehearsal footage with Jack Benny, Johnny
Carson and others, rare network promos - hours of rare treats that are
well worth the price of the collection by themselves. No, seriously, they
are.

You'll thrill
to documentary footage shot during the production with overlayed commentary
by Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz, Jr. along with outtakes from The Lucy
Show and Here's Lucy, showing the human side of Lucille Ball.

Out of this
world extras are what Paul Brownstein brings to the screen, that and a
painstaking eye for detail when restoring these episodes to pristine condition.

For mindless
entertainment (and if you turn to TV for any other reason, I feel sorry
for you), Here's Lucy can't be beat. The fabulous guest stars,
silly plots, the precision production headed by a star who was stubbornly
traditional in her approach. Lucille Ball was the last purveyor of the
old school style.

Here's
Lucy - Best Loved Episodes This is one of my favorite so-bad-it's-good shows -
and look at these extras!
Commentary By Lucie Arnaz, Desi Jr. and Carol Burnett On Their Favorite
Episodes
* Never Before Seen Bloopers
* Rehearsal Footage
* Sketch From A Jack Benny Television Special With Lucy, Jack and Johnny
Carson
* Sketch From An Ann-Margret Television Special Featuring Lucy and Ann-Margret
* Audience Warm-Up With Lucy's Husband and Show Executive Producer Gary
Morton
* The Original CBS Network Promos
* The Here's Lucy Syndication Sales Tape
* Footage From A Benefit Dinner Where Lucie and Desi Jr. Play Their Parents
In An I Love Lucy Sketch

Plot Synopsis: Cuban Bandleader Ricky Ricardo
would be happy if his wife Lucy would just be a housewife. Instead she
tries constantly to perform at the Tropicana where he works, and make
life comically frantic in the apartment building they share with landlords
Fred and Ethel Mertz. The first major show to be put on film rather
than kinescope.

DVD Features:
Available Subtitles: Spanish
Available Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 2.0)
All 30 Season Four episodes, digitally restored and remastered
Spanish audio available on most episodes
Original animated sequences
Flubs
Restored music
Behind-the-scenes audio featurette
Production notes
Five complete episodes of Lucy's radio show: My Favorite Husband
Guest cast information

Here's Lucy on DVD

Plot Outline Lucy Carter, a widow with two teen children,
takes a job as a secretary for her stuffy brother-in-law.

Plot Synopsis: Lucy Carter, a widow with two teenage
kids (Kim and Craig), moves to Los Angeles and takes a job as secretary
to her supercilious brother-in-law Harrison Carter, owner of an employment
agency. Lucy's overzealous manner often caused her to stumble into
embarrassing slapstick situations, much to the chagrin of her best
pal Mary Jane.

DVD Features:
Available Audio Tracks: English (Unknown Format)
Commentary by: Lucie Arnaz, Desi Arnaz Jr., and Carol Burnett on their
favorite episodesUnknown Format
24 episodes on four discs
Never-before-seen bloopers
Rehearsal footage
Sketch from a Jack Benny television special with Lucy, Jack, and Johnny
Carson
Sketch from an Ann-Margret television special featuring Lucy and Ann-Margret
Audience warm-up with Lucy's husband and show executive producer Gary
Morton
A classic Pepsodent commercial with commentary
The original CBS network promos
The "Here's Lucy" syndication sales tape
Footage from a benefit dinner in which Lucie and Desi Jr. play their
parents in an I Love Lucy sketch